FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NARO-CA, the California chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners, is joining with Pacific Legal Foundation to announce a new federal court legal challenge to Senate Bill 1137—the 3,200-foot oil setback mandate that they argue violates the constitutional rights of oil and gas mineral and royalty owners.
According to NARO-CA and PLF, SB 1137 amounts to an uncompensated taking of private property in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution.
The lawsuit will be discussed at a press conference with PLF, Assemblyman Stan Ellis and Central Valley BizFed President & CEO Clint Olivier on the West Side of the State Capitol (Traffic Circle at 10th & N, by the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building) at 11:00 a.m on Wednesday, January 28th.
NARO-CA members and Santa Barbara County mineral owners, John and Melinda Morgan, a brother and sister whose mineral assets were effectively wiped out by SB 1137, are the lead plaintiffs.
“SB 1137 is not only an attack on the 600,000 oil and gas royalty owners in California, but raises issues affecting all property owners in America,” said Ed Hazard, President of NARO-CA, which is not a party to the lawsuit.. “If the state can take one kind of property without compensation, it can target others.”
Mark Miller, PLF’s Director of Environment and Natural Resources Litigation further stated: “We’re suing because prosperity doesn’t come from banning resources—it comes from freeing people to use what they own.”
The action comes as California continues to face the nation’s highest gas prices outside Hawaii, a strain that hits working families hardest and pushes the California dream further out of reach.
Learn more at https://NARO-CA.org.
Click here to read the legal complaint.
Media Contact:
Eric Eisenhammer
Public Affairs & Public Relations Director, NARO-CA
916-833-9276
Eric@DauntlessCommunications.com
